Nourishing Ideas

In the hills of Camporeale, Sicily — a territory shaped by decades of mafia control, social distrust, and agricultural anonymity — a cooperative was born that refused to follow any existing model. Massimiliano Solano, third-generation farmer turned agroecology pioneer, co-founded Valdibella in 1998 with a simple but radical premise: farmers should know who eats their food, and eaters should know who grows it. What started as six producers helping at-risk youth find dignified work has grown into a network of fifty families producing wine, pasta, oil, and grain — not for the industry, but for the people.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

At the heart of Valdibella’s philosophy is a refusal to sell raw and remain anonymous. Massimiliano describes how conventional agriculture hands power entirely to industrial brands — the farmer disappears, the territory disappears, and the price is set by others. Valdibella built a different architecture: direct purchasing groups, a producer-owned food hub, partnerships like Crowd Container in Switzerland, and an agroecology school now running its first full curriculum. Every link in the chain is designed so that Valdibella’s identity, values, and producers remain visible and accountable all the way to the final consumer.

What makes this conversation especially rich is how Massimiliano draws from nature itself as the governing logic of the business. Every element in a living system has a function that serves the whole — no entity causes the collapse of the system around it. That, he argues, is the only honest model for agriculture: find your function, do it in service of collective good, and let complexity be the plan rather than the problem. In a world where food is either something you pay for consciously, or something whose true cost is paid in suffering somewhere else, Valdibella is a quiet proof that the alternative already exists.

Three things that make this episode worth your time:

* How a territory historically controlled by the mafia became the ground for one of Italy’s most interesting regenerative cooperatives — and why the timing matters

* Why Massimiliano believes organic certification, while founded on good principles, became a discipline that allowed minimalist application — and what Valdibella is doing instead

* How Valdibella programs production together with its farmers so that no one grows blindly, and why that alone changes everything about who holds power in the food system

3 CTAs

* If you’ve ever wondered why your food is cheap — this episode will make the cost structure of industrial agriculture impossible to ignore. Listen and share with someone who buys food every day (that’s everyone).

* Know a farmer, food entrepreneur, or cooperative builder? Send them this episode. Massimiliano’s reflections on pricing sovereignty, seed autonomy, and consumer-producer dialogue are rare, practical, and honest.

* Follow Valdibella’s work at valdibella.it — and if you’re in Europe, look into Crowd Container and the Valdibella food hub network to become part of the chain they’re building.

Curiosity-driven closing question

What if the anonymity of your food isn’t just a marketing problem — but the root cause of why farmers disappear, soils degrade, and rural communities hollow out? And what would change if you, as a consumer, saw yourself as a co-author of the food system rather than a passive buyer at its end?

Valdibellas homepage

Massimiliano Solano LinkedIn

Valibellas Instagram

Top 50 Farmers

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — Q2 2026 — an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be gifts available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this season, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

In the hills of Camporeale, Sicily — a territory shaped by decades of mafia control, social distrust, and agricultural anonymity — a cooperative was born that refused to follow any existing model. Massimiliano Solano, third-generation farmer turned agroecology pioneer, co-founded Valdibella in 1998 with a simple but radical premise: farmers should know who eats their food, and eaters should know who grows it. What started as six producers helping at-risk youth find dignified work has grown into a network of fifty families producing wine, pasta, oil, and grain — not for the industry, but for the people.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

At the heart of Valdibella’s philosophy is a refusal to sell raw and remain anonymous. Massimiliano describes how conventional agriculture hands power entirely to industrial brands — the farmer disappears, the territory disappears, and the price is set by others. Valdibella built a different architecture: direct purchasing groups, a producer-owned food hub, partnerships like Crowd Container in Switzerland, and an agroecology school now running its first full curriculum. Every link in the chain is designed so that Valdibella’s identity, values, and producers remain visible and accountable all the way to the final consumer.

What makes this conversation especially rich is how Massimiliano draws from nature itself as the governing logic of the business. Every element in a living system has a function that serves the whole — no entity causes the collapse of the system around it. That, he argues, is the only honest model for agriculture: find your function, do it in service of collective good, and let complexity be the plan rather than the problem. In a world where food is either something you pay for consciously, or something whose true cost is paid in suffering somewhere else, Valdibella is a quiet proof that the alternative already exists.

Three things that make this episode worth your time:

* How a territory historically controlled by the mafia became the ground for one of Italy’s most interesting regenerative cooperatives — and why the timing matters

* Why Massimiliano believes organic certification, while founded on good principles, became a discipline that allowed minimalist application — and what Valdibella is doing instead

* How Valdibella programs production together with its farmers so that no one grows blindly, and why that alone changes everything about who holds power in the food system

3 CTAs

* If you’ve ever wondered why your food is cheap — this episode will make the cost structure of industrial agriculture impossible to ignore. Listen and share with someone who buys food every day (that’s everyone).

* Know a farmer, food entrepreneur, or cooperative builder? Send them this episode. Massimiliano’s reflections on pricing sovereignty, seed autonomy, and consumer-producer dialogue are rare, practical, and honest.

* Follow Valdibella’s work at valdibella.it — and if you’re in Europe, look into Crowd Container and the Valdibella food hub network to become part of the chain they’re building.

Curiosity-driven closing question

What if the anonymity of your food isn’t just a marketing problem — but the root cause of why farmers disappear, soils degrade, and rural communities hollow out? And what would change if you, as a consumer, saw yourself as a co-author of the food system rather than a passive buyer at its end?

Valdibellas homepage

Massimiliano Solano LinkedIn

Valibellas Instagram

Top 50 Farmers

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — Q2 2026 — an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be gifts available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this season, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

Jordhälsa, biologi och regenerativt lantbruk

I det här avsnittet av Nourishing Ideas möter vi Jesper Andersson, ekologisk köttproducent på Skattegården utanför Falköping i Västergötland. Jesper driver sin verksamhet sedan tidigt 1990-tal och har under de senaste åren fördjupat sig i jordhälsa och jordbiologi på ett sätt som förändrat hela hans syn på vad ett lantbruk kan och bör vara. Via YouTube-kanaler, internationella forskare och till sist Soil Food Web School – där han nu genomgår sin avslutande kursomgång – har han steg för steg övergett föreställningen att jord är ett passivt substrat och börjat förstå den som ett levande, självorganiserande system

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

.Samtalet rör sig mellan teori och praktik: från protozoers roll i kväveförsörjningen till hur man bygger sin egen kompostextraktor av traktordysor och kaffefiltrar, från mykorrhizasvamparnas känslighet för anaeroba förhållanden till hur en plogsula kan orsaka grundvattenförluster. Jesper delar observationer från sin egen gård, från grannar som arbetar med Holistic Management och från fallstudier i Indien och Australien där regenerativt tänkande bokstavligen räddat bönder från konkurs och förtvivlan.

Det här är ett avsnitt för dig som är nyfiken på vad som verkligen händer i marken under fötterna på oss – och vad det skulle innebära om vi slutade behandla jord som ett bekostnadsproblem och började se den som det mest värdefulla kapitalet vi har. Jesper är inte klar med sin resa, men han vet tillräckligt för att vara övertygad: det finns inget tillbaka.

I detta avsnitt:

* Hur jordbiologin – bakterier, protozoer, mykorrhizasvampar och nematoder – samverkar för att försörja växter utan konstgödsel

* Konkreta steg för att börja reparera jordhälsa, oavsett om du är ekobonde eller konventionell lantbrukare

* Varför kompost, extrakt och mikroskopet är Jespers viktigaste verktyg – och hur han konstruerat dem själv

Lyssna på avsnittet och följ med ner i jordens värld – du kommer aldrig se ett fält på samma sätt igen. Dela avsnittet med en lantbrukare, en trädgårdsodlare eller någon som funderar på vad regenerativt jordbruk egentligen innebär i praktiken. Prenumerera på Nourishing Ideas för fler samtal om de system som bär upp vår mat, vår jord och vår framtid.

Om en jord med 0,2 % mullhalt på 150 år kan bli ett varningens exempel – vad är det vi egentligen håller på att tappa, och hur lång tid har vi på oss att vända det?

Jesper Anderssons Facebook

Soil Food Web School

The Andhra Pradesh Community-Managed Natural Farming (APCNF)

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Nourishing IdeasSupport the podcast — by subscribing and/or contributing on a yearly or monthly basis:

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — during Q2 2026— an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be freely available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this fall, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

I’m Hans Hallengren, the host of Nourishing Ideas. Learn more about me hereand follow Nourishing Ideas on LinkedIn

I dagens avsnitt, live från Almedalen 2026, av Nourishing Ideas möter vi Patrik von Corswant, femte generationens lantbrukare på Stafvagård i Gotland och styrelseledamot i en Waldorfskola i Visby. Patrik har en bakgrund som spänner från konventionellt storskaligt jordbruk till regenerativ djurhållning och Holistic Management – och han bär med sig samma frågor in i skolvärlden som han brottats med på gården: hur hanterar man komplexitet utan att försöka kontrollera den ihjäl?

This Substack is listener-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Samtalet rör sig mellan gårdens historia, generationers kamp med skuld och skam, och en oväntad övergång till pedagogik när Patrik blev ordförande för en Waldorfskola. Han delar tankar om Rudolf Steiners metod, om hand, hjärta och hjärna som likvärdiga kunskapsvägar, och om varför dagens betygssystem och AI-användning riskerar att tömma lärandet på subjektiv erfarenhet. Det blir ett samtal om polarisering, intuition och vad det egentligen innebär att vara förberedd för livet – inte bara för arbetsmarknaden.

Det här är ett avsnitt för dig som funderar på hur vi lär oss, vad skolan egentligen ska forma människor till, och hur principer från regenerativt jordbruk – tålamod, observation, att arbeta med snarare än mot komplexa system – kan appliceras långt utanför gården. Patrik erbjuder inga enkla svar, men han ställer några av de viktigaste frågorna.

I detta avsnitt:

* Hur Holistic Management och regenerativt tänkande formade Patriks syn på utbildning

* Waldorfpedagogikens grund i hand, hjärta och hjärna – och varför det utmanar det konventionella skolsystemet

* Vad AI gör med vår förmåga till subjektiv erfarenhet och intuition

Lyssna på avsnittet för att höra hela samtalet om gårdens och skolans gemensamma lärdomar. Dela avsnittet med någon som brottas med frågor om lärande, kontroll och komplexitet – i skolan eller i arbetslivet. Prenumerera på Nourishing Ideas för fler samtal om regenerativa system, lärande och framtiden.

Vad skulle hända om vi lät skolan – och oss själva – misslyckas lite oftare, på samma sätt som naturen gör?

Stafva Gård Instagram

Bild: Sophie Jonasson

Thanks for listening! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Nourishing IdeasSupport the podcast — by subscribing and/or contributing on a yearly or monthly basis:

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — during Q2 2026— an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be freely available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this fall, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

I’m Hans Hallengren, the host of Nourishing Ideas. Learn more about me hereand follow Nourishing Ideas on LinkedIn

Helena Norberg-Hodge has spent fifty years doing something almost no one else has done: witnessing, from the inside, what happens when a thriving, self-sufficient culture collides with the global consumer economy. She arrived in Ladakh in 1975 as part of a film team and never fully left. She learned the language. She built relationships. And she watched — over decades — as the people she had come to love went from being among the most content on earth to experiencing depression, divisiveness, and suicide. Not because of poverty. Because of the story they were told about themselves.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

That experience became the foundation for everything Helena has built since — her organization Local Futures, her landmark book Ancient Futures, her Right Livelihood Award, and now the Real Economy campaign, recently launched in Sweden. In this conversation with Hans, she traces a clear, unflinching line from the colonization of indigenous cultures to the trade treaties most governments don’t even understand they’ve signed, from the burning of the witches to the rise of AI as the latest mechanism for extracting wealth upward and replacing human connection with dependency. It’s a big-picture conversation that never loses touch with the ground.

What makes Helena’s perspective rare is that it’s not ideological — it’s observational. She has seen what a genuinely wealthy, low-consumption, high-connection society looks like. She has seen what destroys it. And she has spent half a century mapping the path back.

Three things you’ll carry with you from this conversation:

* Why localization isn’t a right-wing idea, a nostalgic fantasy, or a lifestyle choice — it’s a structural demand that society, not corporations, sets the rules for business

* How the ISDS — Investor-State Dispute Settlement — works as a silent coup, allowing global corporations to sue governments for threatening their profits, and why most people in government don’t even know it exists

* What the Ladakh exchange taught Helena about greed — it isn’t human nature, it’s what you get when you destroy the conditions that make generosity possible

CTA 1 — Action Helena mentions two places to go after this conversation: localfutures.org for her full body of work — including her conversations with Ian McGilchrist, Gabor Maté, and others — and realeconomy.earth to sign the statement and join the campaign in Sweden and beyond. If this episode moved you, that’s the next step.

CTA 2 — Community World Localization Day is June 21, every year — the summer solstice. You don’t have to organize anything big. A meal with neighbors made mostly from local food. A conversation. A film screening. You can register it at localfutures.org and become part of what’s already a global, largely invisible movement of people choosing differently. If you’re doing something — tell me. I’d love to share it here.

CTA 3 — Share This episode is for the person in your network who cares deeply about justice, about food, about climate, about community — but hasn’t yet connected those concerns to the economic architecture that produces them all. Forward them this. It might be the conversation that ties it together.

What’s the question this episode leaves sitting with you?

“What would you have to stop believing about progress — and about yourself — for a genuinely local, genuinely human economy to feel possible rather than naïve?”

CLOSING CURIOSITY QUESTION

“If the system we’ve been living inside was designed — not discovered — what becomes possible the moment you stop treating it as inevitable?”

👉 Listen now to one of the most important conversations we’ve had on this podcast.

💬 Share this episode with someone who believes the system is too big to change. Helena has spent fifty years proving otherwise — one community, one conversation, one farmer’s market at a time.

🌍 Visit localfutures.org and realeconomy.earth — sign the statement, register for World Localization Day (June 21), and find out what’s already happening near you.

Nourishing IdeasSupport the podcast — by subscribing and/or contributing on a yearly or monthly basis:

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — during Q2 2026— an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be freely available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this fall, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

I’m Hans Hallengren, the host of Nourishing Ideas. Learn more about me hereand follow Nourishing Ideas on LinkedIn

David Roxendal tillbringade 20 år som IT-konsult i Stockholm — duktig på sitt jobb, men innerst inne hungrig på något annat. Det var brodern som drog honom tillbaka, en sommar 2012 på ett permakulturläger i Garpenberg som förändrade allt. Inte ett aha-moment utan ett långt, sammanhängande sådant. Han beskriver det som att komma tillbaka till scouterna — men med mer mening. Det tog inte lång tid innan han aldrig ville gå tillbaka.

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I dag driver David och hans partner Eliza Humble Habitat, ett 12 hektar stort skogsbruk utanför Garpenberg. Här håller de kurser i vildympning, naturbygge och permakultur, hyr ut stugor och bygger just nu ett Earthship-inspirerat hus med timmer från den egna skogen och lera istället för plast. Bävern finns med som granne och medarbetare.

David kallar det för att spela med platsen — och menar det bokstavligt. Allt är ett experiment. Allt är på riktigt.

Det finns en röd tråd i samtalet som är svår att missa: frihet, lek och närvaro. David pratar om hur han vaknar med en inre drivkraft varje morgon, hur han värderar att styra sin egen tid över att tjäna mer pengar, och hur han börjar förstå att ett regenerativt liv kräver lika mycket ett regenerativt socialt liv som en regenerativ jord. Den ensamma vintern på landet är en utmaning han inte blundar för. Lindy Hop är en del av lösningen.

* Hur en IT-nörd från Stockholm slutade med webbchatt och startade om med lövtäkt, lera och en bäver som granne — och varför han aldrig tittat bakåt

* Vad ett Earthship-inspirerat hus byggt med egna fallna träd faktiskt innebär — och hur du kan vara med och bygga det nästa vecka

* Det som ingen pratar om när de romantiserar livet på landet: den regenerativa sociala ekonomin och varför den är minst lika viktig som komposten

🎧 Lyssna på hela samtalet — David berättar mot slutet om det han kallar “Frankenforest”, ett vildympningsexperiment som börjar blomma för första gången i år. Det är värt att höra.

🌿 Prenumerera om du vill ha fler samtal med människor som bygger sina liv på riktigt — med händerna i leran, med skogen som granne och med visionen om en annan slags ekonomi.

📩 Känner du någon som funderar på att byta bana, flytta ut eller bara börja odla? Dela det här avsnittet med dem. Det kan vara precis det de behöver höra just nu.

Vad skulle hända om du tog en enda liten del av ditt liv och lät den bli mer levande — inte perfekt, bara mer på riktigt?

Humble habitat hemsida

Humble Habitat Instagram

Davids Instagram

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Nourishing IdeasSupport the podcast — by subscribing and/or contributing on a yearly or monthly basis:

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — during Q2 2026— an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be freely available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this fall, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

I’m Hans Hallengren, the host of Nourishing Ideas. Learn more about me hereand follow Nourishing Ideas on LinkedIn

Amilcare Astone lämnade juristkarriären i Neapel, packade ihop sitt liv och startade om i Sverige vid 36 års ålder. Det som verkade vara en enkel affärsidé – att importera mozzarella – förvandlades till något djupare. Han insåg snabbt att varje råvara har en social historia bakom sig: vem odlade den, under vilka villkor, och på vilkens bekostnad? Från dag ett vägrade han samarbeta med producenter som inte var transparenta mot sina anställda.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I dag driver Amilcare ett importföretag som banar väg för regenerativt och biodynamiskt odlad mat i Sverige. Han introducerade Europas första olivolja med regenerativ ekologisk certifiering. Men för honom är maten inte bara en produkt – det är ett verktyg för att uttrycka värderingar, bygga relationer och visa att ett annat livsmedelssystem är möjligt. Han ser på jord och människa som oupplösligt sammanflätade, och yrkar på att vi måste återläphabetisera vårt sätt att förstå mat.

Det nuvarande livsmedelssystemet, menar Amilcare, är genomkorrupt – dominerat av finansiella intressen, oligopol och en ingenjörslogik som maximerar volym och centralisering på bekostnad av biologisk mångfald, folkhälsa och bönders överlevnad. Vi betalar för maten fyra gånger: i skatt, i kassan, i miljöskador och i sjukvårdskostnader. Hans vision är att koppla ihop konsumenter direkt med producenter via en öppen digital plattform, och att göra bondebeslut till en politisk och moralisk handling.

3 bulletpoints

* Varför Europas första regenerativt certifierade olivolja skapades av en före detta politisk aktivist från Neapel – och vad det säger om vad vi kallar “hållbart”

* Hur livsmedelssystemet gör att vi betalar för maten fyra gånger – och vad du kan göra åt det redan i veckan

* Det som din farmor visste om mjölk som Arla helst inte pratar om – och varför det handlar om mer än smak

CTA

Ø Lyssna på hela samtalet – Amilcare delar på slutet något från kvantfysiken som förändrar hur du ser på varje möte du har. Det är värt att höra med egna öron.

Ø Prenumerera om du vill ha fler samtal som rör vid det som faktiskt spelar roll – mat, jord, ansvar och vad det innebär att vara människa i vår tid.

Ø Dela avsnittet med någon som jobbar inom restaurang, livsmedel eller jordbruk. Det här samtalet behöver höras av fler i branschen.

Vad händer när vi slutar se mat som en vara och börjar se den som ett förhållande – till jord, till bonde, till oss själva?

Amilcare Astone LinkedIn

Radici hemsida

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Nourishing IdeasSupport the podcast — by subscribing and/or contributing on a yearly or monthly basis:

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — during Q2 2026— an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be freely available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this fall, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

I’m Hans Hallengren, the host of Nourishing Ideas. Learn more about me hereand follow Nourishing Ideas on LinkedIn

Amit Paul has lived more lives than most — chart-topping pop star, polymer chemistry CEO, sustainability entrepreneur, and now one of the most quietly radical thinkers working on the future of business. In this episode of Nourishing Ideas, Amit takes us from a basement audition in Stockholm to touring with Britney Spears, from battling the petrochemicals industry to discovering a completely different way of seeing the world — one where companies are organisms, control is an illusion, and the most powerful thing a leader can do is get genuinely curious.

This Substack is listener-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

What emerges is a conversation about living systems, regenerative business, and why the frameworks we’ve built our economy on are not just outdated — they’re creating the very crises we’re trying to solve. Amit introduces the concept of the Regenerative Community Organism, talks about why composting companies might be more valuable than scaling them, and makes a compelling case for why hope isn’t the antidote to despair — presence is.

This isn’t a feel-good episode about sustainability buzzwords. It’s a rigorous, honest, sometimes uncomfortable rethinking of what it means to create value in a world that’s changing faster than our institutions can process.

Three things you’ll take away from this conversation:

* Why “control” is the most expensive belief in your organization — and what to replace it with when everything becomes unpredictable

* The difference between complicated and complex — and why that distinction changes everything about how you lead, plan, and measure success

* How to start a company (or restart one) as a living organism — including the three foundational moves Amit recommends before you write a single business plan

Ø Listen now and discover why the river doesn’t need pushing.

Ø Share this episode with a founder, a leader, or anyone who’s ever felt like they’re doing everything right — and still hitting a wall.

Ø Subscribe to Nourishing Ideas for conversations with thinkers who are rebuilding the world from its foundations up.

What’s alive in you after listening? What question does this episode leave you sitting with?

“What if the thing you’re trying to control is the very thing that’s blocking the emergence you’re looking for?”

Amit Paul LinkedIn

Innrwrks homepage

World of Wisdom Podcast

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — Q2 2026 — an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be gifts available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this season, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

Nick Viney farms on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon — a valley so wet it floods from both rain and its neighbours’ runoff. Thirty years ago she ran the place like everyone else: shedges clipped at sharp right angles, livestock on the land year-round, tidiness the measure of a good farmer. Then, with three kids under a year old, she was forced to de-stock. Three months later she walked into a field and found a stand of early purple orchids she had never seen in her lifetime. That moment changed everything.

What followed was a decades-long dive into holistic management, permaculture design, and what Nick calls “adaptive multi-paddock grazing” — moving animals the way predators once did, giving land long rest periods, reading soil through her feet rather than data sheets. She now shares cattle with her neighbour, runs part-time pigs as living bulldozers, and uses sheep hooves to burnish pond liners into waterproof clay. Her metric for success? The number of anthills she can keep alive each year.

Nick is also a founding farmer of EARA, the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture, and a live-painting storyteller whose show is called “Only Art and Beaver Will Save Us.” Her vision for scaling is not through 100-shectare efficiency but through what she calls cellular reproduction — small, mixed farms replicating like healthy cells across the landscape. Her argument: we don’t need to feed the world, we need to feed our valley, and trust that someone over the hill is doing the same.

3 bullet points

Ø Nick discovered regenerative farming by accident — forced to de-stock her farm, she returned three months later to find orchids she had never seen in 30 years, triggering a complete rethink of how she managed land.

Ø Her approach uses animals as precision tools: cattle for soil impact, pigs to dig natural ponds, sheep hooves to waterproof them with clay — all mimicking the role predators and wild sherds once played on British landscapes.

Ø She argues that “scaling” regenerative agriculture means cellular replication — many small, mixed farms feeding their own communities — not chasing industrial efficiency on larger plots.

3 Call-to-Actions

Ø Listen to the full episode and hear Nick describe the moment she walked into a field and saw orchids growing for the first time in her lifetime — and why that single walk changed 30 years of farming practice overnight.

Ø Share this with a friend who buys food but has never thought about where the water in that food came from — Nick’s answer to “how do we feed the world” will genuinely surprise them.

Ø Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode — we keep finding people quietly rebuilding the relationship between land, water, and food, one valley at a time.

Curiosity question

If the land you walk on every day could speak — what would it say it needs from you, right now?

Photo - Groundswell

Artist in Residence/ Keynote speaker offer- Live painted journey towards regeneration.www.nickviney.co.ukReimagining your land. Fresh eyes and ideas to help you step onto your regenerative journey. www.nickviney.co.ukInsta @nickvineyartistGlamping www.rewildingfutures.co.ukwww.LeewoodStudios.co.uk2025 Film ‘Farming The Flood’

Nature connection creativity courses through Art & Beaver #onlyartandbeaverwillsaveus

For entrepreneurs

For one-time donations:💸 Swish (in Sweden): 070-6092464 (Hans Hallengren)☕️ Buy Me A Coffee

Besides the podcast, you’ll soon find — Q2 2026 — an educational program on how to build a regenerative business or create a sustainably functioning company.

The interviews will continue to be freely available to everyone, and we truly appreciate any kind of support — whether through subscribing or contributing financially in any way.

Some reflection episodes, which will form part of the educational material I’ll start publishing this season, will be available exclusively to paying subscribers.If you want to listen to those — this is a good time to become a subscriber!

In addition to the interviews, there will be a learning program open to everyone, but I’ll also mix in deeper-dive episodes on specific topics, which will be reserved for paying subscribers.

Follow me hereJoin the subscriber chat

🎵 The music was produced by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)

Elina Eriksson är forskare och lärare på KTH – men hon är också någon som väcktes till liv av sin sons framtid, av en vän som köpte mark i Västergötland, och av insikten att rationaliteten inte räcker hela vägen. I det här avsnittet berättar hon om resan från datavetenskap till hållbarhetsforskning, och varför ett gårdsbesök i Järna kan förändra hela frekvensen du lever på.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

På KTH har Elina och hennes kollega Daniel tagit det otänkbara steget att bädda in Art of Hosting – en faciliteringsmetodik för djupa dialoger och kollektivt lärande – som obligatorisk kurs i ett masterprogram. Studenterna som mött den här pedagogiken beskriver det som frigörande, gränssläckande och ibland “vuxendagis”. Men framförallt: det förändrar dem. En student som gick odiagnosticerad ADHD genom hela sin utbildning fick äntligen en pedagogik som mötte kroppen, inte bara hjärnan.

Elina talar inte om mål – hon talar om intentioner och riktningar. Om att lyssna bättre, om regenerativt ledarskap, och om att skapa “fickor av mänsklighet” mitt i en teknisk värld som går allt snabbare. Och om att det kanske är vi – de 10 % rikaste i världen – som behöver förändras mest och snabbast. Inte för att vi måste. Utan för att det finns någonting på andra sidan ekorrhjulet som vi inte ens kan föreställa oss än.

Tre skäl att lyssna

* ◆ Hur en KTH-forskare kombinerar planetära gränser, Art of Hosting och regenerativt ledarskap – och varför det faktiskt fungerar.

* ◆ Elina delar den exakta stunden då klimatångesten blev personlig – och hur hon omvandlade den till undervisning.

* ◆ Om varför riktig förändring börjar med att bli mer sårbar, inte mer effektiv.

Uppmanande fråga

Vad skulle hända om du bytte ut ett av dina effektivitetsmål mot en intention – och lät riktningen vara nog?

Tre CTA

Ø Lyssna på hela samtalet och låt Elinas ord sjunka in – det här är ett avsnitt du inte vill ha på dubbel hastighet.

Ø Dela avsnittet med en kollega som fortfarande tror att teknologin ensam löser klimatkrisen. Det kanske startar ett samtal.

Ø Skriv ner en sak du är tacksam för idag – inspirerat av den promenad i Lill-skogen som förändrade en students vardag för gott.

Elina Eriksson LinkedIn

KTHs Mastersprogram för Sustainable Digitalisation

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Nourishing Ideas

I’m Hans Hallengren, and this podcast is my way of exploring ideas that matter — conversations about regenerative business, sustainable thinking, and what it really means to build something that lasts.

All interviews are, and will always be, freely available to everyone. But if this work resonates with you, your support means the world — it’s what keeps these conversations going.

Ways to support the podcast:

🎙️ Become a subscriber — monthly or yearly, for entrepreneurs or individuals

☕️ Buy Me A Coffee — for one-time contributions

💸 Swish (Sweden): 070-609 24 64 (Hans Hallengren)

As a paying subscriber, you’ll also get access to: Exclusive reflection episodes that go deeper on specific topics — the kind of slower, more personal thinking that doesn’t quite fit the interview format, but that I find just as valuable.

Coming in Q2 2026: A learning program, Nourishing Ideas Compass, on how to build a regenerative business or create a company that functions sustainably. Parts of it will be open to everyone; the deeper-dive episodes will be for subscribers.

If you’ve been on the fence about subscribing — now’s a great time to jump in.

👉 Follow me here 💬 Join the subscriber chat 🔗 Follow Nourishing Ideas on LinkedIn

Music by Victor-Alan Weeks (SENA HERO)